


Deep Six

by darkladyofchaos



Category: Aquaman (Comics), Batman (Comics), Black Canary (Comics), Green Arrow (Comics), Justice League - All Media Types, Superman (Comics), The Flash (Comics), Wonder Woman (Comics)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Crime Fighting, Crossover, DC Heroes - Freeform, DC comics - Freeform, Joker's Daughter, Multi, Mystery, Romance, Superheroes, Villains, a lot more to come, comics based story, kids of the justice league
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-18 08:11:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11287206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkladyofchaos/pseuds/darkladyofchaos
Summary: The children of the world's best-known heroes must unite to investigate a series of mysterious events in their cities. Someone begins to turn normal people into meta-humans using an unknown formula, and this brings serious consequences for the balance of human beings.





	1. Melissa & Kevin

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Deep Six](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/302025) by Gothic Princess. 



> Hello there!! So this story was originally posted in portuguese and I translated everything all by myself, so I apologise for any grammar errors that might occour. I will try my best to revise and make sure that everything is right, but if you find something wrong just tell me :)
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melissa Wayne a.k.a Batgirl and Kevin Kent a.k.a Superboy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoy this story!! I've already finished it, so it might take a while to translate all the 37 chapters, but I'll do my best to do it as fast as possible :)

The night was quiet, and the sound of the police sirens was not heard at the moment. That was a good sign to the residents of Gotham City, for that meant they could walk the streets without being hit by accident - or not - by a bullet or end up killed in an alley. Above the old buildings of that part of the town, a shadow passed quickly jumping from roof to roof, being partially seen by a few people passing by on the streets. Everyone whose eyes had got a glimpse of it already knew who that was, or at least they thought they knew.

The shadow only stopped when arriving at a building that was almost collapsing, an empty orphanage that had been sold and would be demolished soon. In an alley near it, two men could be seen talking, and the shadow kept observing them from afar. One of them was wearing a red coat and a black cap while the other wore a leather jacket and held a suitcase, their faces could barely be seen in the darkness and from that angle, but at least they could still be heard by the mysterious shadow.

“Is this going to work?” the red coat guy asked.

“I assure you it will. You don’t have to pay for it, but we’ll soon need your services in return.” the other replied, opening the case and handing a syringe with a green liquid to the man.

“What kind of services?” he took the syringe, a bit suspicious.

“Use the serum, pal. We’ll contact you when the time comes, and then we’ll answer all of your questions.” he turned his back to the red coat guy, ready to leave.

Unluckily for him, something sharp hit his hand hard, knocking the suitcase down, causing them to turn to the direction from which the projectile had come. The two were astonished to see the shadow come down from the building and land right in front of them.

“Fuck, it’s the Batman!” the man wearing the leather jacket took a gun from his belt and pointed it at the shadow. Before he pulled the trigger, he saw that the person standing before him wasn’t the Dark Knight.

“Batman is off tonight, but I think if I were you I’d prefer he was here instead of me.” her voice was cold and determined, without a glint of nervousness or anxiety, even with a gun aimed at her face.

Now with the young woman’s proximity, the man could see what she was wearing, even in the dark alley; A kind of black elastic mesh covered in rigid kevlar armor, a golden utility belt stuck to her waist and a mask similar to the one Batman wore. Her physiognomy denounced that she was a young woman, as well as her long black hair that feels down her shoulders and outside the upper part of the suit.

She realized the man was going to pull the trigger and dodged sideways fast, so she was out of the aim of the gun, and then punched him in the stomach, watching him release the weapon and grunt in pain. She hit his jaw using her elbow and shoved him face first into the wall so fast that he only felt the pain of the blows after a few seconds had passed.

“What have you been selling in my city, scum?” she asked, her tone aggressive and intimidating. The man didn’t answer, he simply smirked and spat some blood from his mouth. “Answer, or you’ll never be able to speak again. And don’t think I wouldn’t break your jaw, I’ve already done worse.”

Before he could respond to the menace, they both heard the other man gasp, and when she turned around to look at him, she saw that he had just injected the syringe’s needle into his arm. She let the guy she was threatening go and approached the red coat one, watching as his face began to turn red and his whole body slowly starts to catch on fire. The thing was, the light didn’t seem to hurt him at all.

Batgirl was in shock for a moment but managed to get out of the way when the man threw a flurry of flames at her. That was a complete accident, she thought, there was no way he knew how to control his new meta-human powers, but the fire was even more dangerous when out of control.

After that, he tried to punch her, but the heroine blocked the blow using the kevlar plates on her right arm. A few seconds passed before she could feel it burn right through the material and onto her pale skin. The man continued to attack her, and even with Batgirl’s excellent fighting ability, he was able to hold her left arm and throw her against the wall with force. The armor no longer protected her, and the heat level was absurd. If she didn’t find a way out of there, she would burn to death in no time.

With some difficulty caused by the pain and the heat, she gritted her teeth and took a small capsule from her belt using her right hand. She threw it on his face and watched him cry in pain and despair as the liquid came out of it and froze him in a matter of seconds. The heroine had never needed liquid nitrogen in any of her missions and mentally thanked her father for insisting she has it on her belt.

Of course, she would never admit to him he was right about something, but she learned that he could give some good advice sometimes.

”Melissa…! “ thinking of the devil. “Melissa, what happened? Where are you? ” asked the low, irritated voice on the other end of the line of her radio in the mask.

She rolled her eyes at the realization that it was her father.

“Nothing happened, I’m in Downtown, and I’m fine. I just wanted to get out a little and keep working on my investigation” she said, eyeing the burn mark on her left arm and wincing slightly at the pain. It could have been a lot worse, she thought.

“I told you not to leave the Batcave! There have been more attacks in the past few days.”

“I’m in the middle of something important right now, and I’m not a child anymore for you to lecture me about shit I do!” she cut him off. “I’m going to Metropolis tomorrow, I couldn’t find anything here, and the rates of attacks are higher there. Don’t try to stop me.”

”Melissa Wayne, you are not…! ” he tried to yell at her, but she turned off the radio before he could.

Batgirl heard the sound of sirens and stepped away from the frozen man, heading toward her motorcycle that was parked a few blocks away. This had already been the third time an average person had gained powers from one second to another by only injecting that serum. It was not logical, nor understandable, since meta-human DNA was complicated to recreate and even harder to fit into an ordinary human DNA.

As if it wasn’t already difficult enough to be the new Batgirl, Melissa still had to put up with Bruce - also known as her father - giving her moral lesson and saying that she was still too young to start a life as a vigilante, even though she had been doing this for the past four years. Mel knew he didn’t want her or her sister to follow his path, but the choice had been hers, no one would change her mind.

Now she would investigate the events in one of the largest cities in the country, and she wouldn’t do it on her own. At least not when she could use the help of an almost indestructible friend.

**§**

Kevin opened the door of the classroom and walked out of it with his classmates. He went to his locker at the end of the corridor crowded with students, carrying five books pretending they were heavy, even if that wasn’t even one-third of what he could carry in one hand. When he reached his locker, he opened it was door a bit clumsy for being with so many books and began to put them inside of it bit by bit.

He couldn’t wait for the winter break, and then for the end of his last year in school. He wanted to go back to live with his parents in Smallville as soon as possible, and also help his grandmother with the Kent farm. It had been a long time since he was getting tired of the big city, but could only leave when he finished his studies.

Once he was done putting his books inside his locker, Kevin heard someone call him out, and that person didn’t sound happy.

“Kevin!” the voice was familiar and hysterical, he already knew with whom he would be dealing with and just sighed, turning around and seeing a relatively tall girl with red hair and green eyes standing in front of him with both hands resting on her thin waist.

“Hey, Cat. What’s up?”

“Don’t you ‘what’s up’ me, Kent! Where were you?! My cheerleader test was five minutes ago, and because of you I couldn’t concentrate and wasn’t able to perform my special moves!” the redhead yelled, visibly frustrated. “You’re my boyfriend, and you needed to be there to support me. What could be more important than your girlfriend?”

“I was in class, and I couldn’t miss it, but I can take you to dinner tonight if that makes you feel better,” he said, sincerely trying to calm her down.

“I don’t want your cheap apologies! I want you to stop being selfish and start thinking about me. I can’t date a guy that only thinks about useless things like studying.”

Catherine was a spoiled and arrogant girl. Many people didn’t understand how Kevin was able to be her boyfriend for so long. He, however, seemed to be the only one who saw her sweet side. Most of the time people would tell him to break things up already and find someone who deserved his kindness, but he was too gentle even to do it and hurt the girl.

“Okay, I was wrong, and I’m sorry. Just stop yelling, please.” Kevin, as usual, was calm and patient.

After receiving some more complaints from his girlfriend, he heard a commotion at the end of the hallway using his super hearing and soon realizing it was a fight.

“Are you listening even to me?!” Catherine asked, noticing his distant gaze.

“There’s a fight going on. I think it’s Brad and that bunch of his troglodyte friends” he frowned slightly, walking down the corridor to where he had heard the voices and ignored the girl's next comment.

“Who cares? I’m more important than a stupid fight!” she yelled as she followed him.

Well, he cared. He always did his best to stay out of fights, but whenever Brad started a fight, some innocent kid would go to the infirmary.

When Kev arrived, he could see three guys that were his age - one blonde and two brown - intimidating a boy holding a book in one hand and a skateboard with the other. The other students around them kept yelling for them to start the fight already.

“You think you can play hero, save a nerd and get out of it without a black eye, Kurt?” the blonde guy inquired in a not so friendly tone.

His eyes were full of rage, fists clenched, it was only a matter of time until he would punch the poor guy’s soul out of him.

“Stop being an idiot, Brad, the guy didn’t do anything!” Kurt was a bit shaky, and Kevin could see that he was terrified, but was brave enough not to show it completely.

“Okay, that’s enough for today's show,” Kevin said, moving closer to them and looking around to the crowd of students. "I bet you all have better things to do, like going to class."

Some of the students followed his advice and left, but others kept pointing their cellphones at them and waiting for Kurt to get beaten. The other thing that Kevin has accomplished was to take Brad's attention from the boy and turn it to himself.

“Ohh, so weak boy Kent has come to get some too,” he mocked, laughing with his friends as he watched the dark-haired young man approach.

The comment would make anyone who knew Kev well enough laugh since they knew he has never been weak in any way.

“I know you like to get attention by showing that you’re stronger than everyone else, but you’re not going to get it by beating someone who did nothing wrong,” he said, keeping his voice cool.

“He pissed me off, and I punch those who piss me off.” the blonde stepped forward and came face to face with Kevin. “But I can be happy by punching you instead, country bumpkin.”

Brad smirked and pushed Kevin back with all his strength. Even though he could stand to be in the middle of a hurricane with no problem, the Kent pretended to lose his balance and slammed his back into one of the lockers on the wall, careful not to make it break. Kev then saw Brad’s fist almost hit his face and knew that if that happened Brad would break every bone in his hand and that wouldn't be pretty. Quickly and without much effort, he dodged to the side and avoided the blow.

Before the blonde could do anything else, someone came and took one of his hands. He was surprised to see that who did it was a small dark-haired girl with bluish-green eyes.

“This fight is over,” she said coolly. Before waiting for an answer, she twisted his wrist and pushed him to his knees, causing the guy to scream in pain.

“You crazy bitch! ” he shouted, getting up and away from her as he massaged his aching wrist.

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” she replied, watching him flee with his friends as well as the other students that left disappointed because the actual fight didn’t happen. “You could have crushed them like insects.”

“I know I could, that’s why I didn’t,” Kevin said, smiling at her. “It’s good to see you again, Mel. How’s Bruce?”

“Paranoid and annoying. And how’s Super?” she referred to Kevin’s father.

“He’s fine. Finally convinced my mother to move to Smallville. I only study here because it’s my senior year, but when I’m over, I’ll go to college there.”

"You are wasting talent living a normal life when you could be a great superhero."

"It's not a total waste. I still help people who are in need. I don't wear a cape or a mask like you do."

Melissa rolled her eyes slightly and gave him a small smile.

"Everyday superhero cliché. Become a firefighter and go help people who are not annoying teenagers, and then I'll stop insisting on the subject."

"I want to be a lawyer, actually." he chuckled when she frowned and sighed.

The Wayne was about to start to talk to him about what she came for when a strange voice to her ears echoed through the corridor.

"Kevin Kent!” he automatically sighed when heard Catherine’s angry voice once again and prayed she wouldn’t say anything to Melissa since his Wayne friend was rather temperamental. “Who is she?”

“Melissa Wayne, my childhood friend,” he stared at the red-haired girl with a look that was telling her to behave. “Melissa, this is my girlfriend Catherine Still.”

“Did you hear him? Girlfriend, so take your eyes off him before I kick your ass!” Cat said with a glint of annoyance in her voice.

Melissa merely raised an eyebrow and looked at Kevin, who was kind of embarrassed with the whole situation.

“Kevin is like a brother to me, you can rest easy about it,” Melissa replied. “Now if you excuse us, I need to talk to your boyfriend in private.” with that, she placed a hand on his shoulder and pulled him out of the school without waiting for the redhead’s response. “I don’t like her,” she said nonchalantly as they walked down the street.

“I’m sure you didn’t come here to talk about my relationship with Catherine.” Kevin put his hands in his pockets and looked at her. “Are you in trouble again or-?”

She suddenly stopped walking, and he did the same.

“Normal human beings are being turned into meta-humans. There is a serum circulating throughout the country, and I followed the smuggler's trail to Metropolis. The last time I faced one of them, I almost didn’t make it out alive. I’m not dumb, I know I have no powers and if I face another one that is powerful enough I might die, so I need your help.”

Kevin had heard of this serum but didn’t know if it was true. He would always leave the “hero work” to his father and his cousin, but upon hearing that Melissa almost died, he became worried. She has always been like his big sister, Kevin would never deny helping her or any friend in need.

"Well, you can count me in," he said with a smile on his lips. "Where do we start?"

**§**

In Gotham City, a woman was sitting behind a large table while listening to her employee's report. They had to be very successful at spreading the serum all over the US until Batgirl started to investigate them and ruin most deliveries.

“Another dose of the serum wasted!” the woman yelled, and stood up, hitting the table hard with her clenched fists.

His face was still sore after being aggressively pressed against a wall by Batgirl, and he didn't want anything but to put a bullet inside the heroine's head right now.

“It was not my fault if Batgirl froze him!”

“Then keep an eye on her so she will not be a problem anymore,” the woman ordered, her voice as cold as ice.

“Why not just kill her at once? Batman wouldn’t even know we were the ones who did it. He’s too busy with the Justice League-”

“No one is going to kill Melissa Wayne, she may be very useful to our cause in the future.” she smiled devilishly, forgetting her anger for a moment when remembering her plan. “I want you to keep her distracted, take her focus away from us, and when the time is right, we’ll have an army of meta-humans so powerful that not even the Justice League will be able to defeat them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Click here](http://darkladyofchaos.tumblr.com/) to know more about the characters and ask me questions!!


	2. Kate & Apollo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the characters of Deep Six belong to me, except the ones created by DC Comics :)

Melissa and Kevin found themselves in the Centennial Park in Metropolis not long after meeting at his school, both already wearing their uniforms. He didn't wear his very often since his father usually took care of all the problems in the city and there was no need for him to help, but he kept the uniform for emergencies like that one; It was the previous Superboy' suit, Konner had given it to him after he retired from the hero life and Kev accepted it without complaining.

They were now on top of one of the tallest trees in the place as Batgirl was holding a pair of binoculars to observe everything around her, while Kevin was just beside her waiting for something to happen.

"It's been two hours, are you sure it's going to happen?" Superboy wasn't the type to annoy Melissa of all people with questions, but he seriously doubted that was the place for criminals to sell a powerful drug.

"Yes," she answered dryly. She had spent the last hours of her day hacking teenagers messages to get something, and at the end of the day, she finally got it.

"I'd understand if we were to look for something like that in Suicide Slum, but this is a park. No one in their right mind would smuggle something so valuable in the open like this."

"The people who are going to do this are not professionals, they are teenagers trying to have fun, and they just got here." Batgirl placed the little binoculars back in her belt and jumped off the tree.

Kevin then saw two teens on the other side of the park and could hear them talking about a serum. The hero stepped down from the tree and watched as Melissa approached the two boys carefully hiding in the shadows of the trees so she would not be spotted. He started to float so that his footsteps wouldn't be heard, also approaching the two teenagers little by little and hoping that his friend wouldn't be so hard on the kids.

"This is so awesome, dude! How did you get it, Dylan?" one of them asked when his friend took two syringes from inside a bag.

"A guy gave it to me at the back of the school. Now we won't need those pathetic costumed heroes to protect us from the trouble they usually create." Dylan smirk soon faded as he saw his friend freeze as if something or someone was behind him. When he turned, all he saw was a black shadow leaping over him and throwing him to the ground abruptly. "Oh my God! Daniel, help me!"

"Shut up!" Batgirl was pinning him to the ground without much trouble. "Where did you get that serum and who's making it?"

"I don't know! A stranger gave it to me, I do not know where it came from, I swear!" the boy yelled back while trying to break free, but she was stronger and held him.

Kevin didn't approve of his friend's aggressive behaviour, he thought it would be much easier if they just talked to the teenagers, but he wouldn't complain at that moment. Otherwise, she would get mad at him, and that wasn't good even for someone as powerful as himself. He moved closer to where they were and stopped when he saw the other boy inject the serum into his arm fast. The hero used his x-ray vision on him and could see the liquid spreading through the guy's bloodstream at an absurd rate. Once the serum had already overpowered Daniel's entire body, his skin began to turn into stone.

The once normal teenager was now six feet tall, and his skin was completely made of pure rock. Kevin watched him raise his hand preparing to hit Batgirl, and without hesitation, the hero whizzed past him and pushed him away from her. Sometimes he couldn't control his strength often breaking stuff that wasn't supposed to be broken by humans with one simple touch. That was one of those moments when he realised that he had inadvertently taken the stone boy to town with what he thought was a little push.

Melissa felt a strong wind blow behind her and saw that Kevin had pushed the teenager toward the centre and everything happened so fast she could barely think of something to do. It would be a disaster to have that giant monster in town, of that she was certain. She took the syringe from the hand of the boy she was immobilising, tore off the needle and placed it on her belt. She quickly handcuffed Dylan to one of the park benches and ran toward the town, listening to the noise of several people screaming and cars being crashed.

Yeah, that wasn't going to end well.

**§**

"Ok, I give up. Get this damn device away from me before I destroy it!" the young man yelled at his friend. Some people in the cafeteria looked in his direction briefly, not knowing why he was so upset about a phone since he has the appearance of an ordinary young man who wasn't stranger to gadgets like that one.

"It's just a phone, Apollo," his friend said, taking the iPhone from his hand, an amused smile on his lips. He knew the demigod hated technologies in general and it was always comical to watch him try to use them. "How long did you stay on that island anyway? Every person your age knows how these things work, you should have learned at some point."

"I was born there and have never visited this country until two days ago. My mother only took me to the League's Watchtower when I was little, and I stayed for an hour or so, but she never brought me here," he took a sip from his hot chocolate.

Apollo had yet to know anyone except Johnny, a friend who worked with his father Steve Trevor and was helping him to adapt to a whole new world. He had heard that many members of the Justice League had had children and was looking forward to finally getting to meet them.

"You really should get to know your way around as soon as possible, kid. I'm afraid it won't be as nice living here than it was on that magic Island." Johnny said seriously and drank from his coffee.

"The strongest Amazon warrior hated me, so I can't see how this will be worst than having to train with her every day and get beat up almost every time I did so." Apollo watched as his friend laughed slightly and smiled softly. "Don't worry. I will be fine."

Johnny nodded, knowing the boy was a better fighter and had a better soul than many people out there. After a few minutes of comfortable silence between them, he turned his head to the door and saw a group of five beautiful girls entering the cafeteria, four with long brown hair and the other with a natural blonde one, attracting the attention of almost everyone around them, except for Apollo. They seemed so immersed in their conversation that they didn't even notice all the eyes over them, or didn't care.

They sat at one of the tables by the window and soon began to discuss which kind of coffee they should order. Johnny turned to Apollo and gave him a slight nudge when the young man kept trying to burn a hole through the phone that was now over the table as if the device would be destroyed by his annoyed gaze.

"What's it?" he asked, looking confused at his friend.

"Dude, five beautiful girls come in, and you don't even look at them? Spending so much time on that Island made your brain melt or something like that?" the elder teased and chuckled.

"The Amazons were also gorgeous, almost goddesses, but I've learned not to care so much about looks and care more about brains," he replied, giving the girls a quick glance and also paying more attention to the blonde, who stood out more. "And I didn't come here to find a girlfriend. It was about time for me to help the world using my powers just as my mother did."

"Good luck on that, I will stick to being a normal guy who can date pretty girls like those." Johnny chuckled and finished his drink.

He was a bit older than Apollo with his twenty-four years. He had a youthful appearance, with black hair and white skin, didn't draw much attention when by Apollo's side since he wasn't as muscular as him, but he has had his fair share of dates to know more about flirting. Nonetheless, the demigod's name already denounced that his beauty was similar to that of the Greek god of the Sun, his blue eyes were the same as his mother's, while his physical bearing was even better than his father's. He could have zero experience talking with women that weren't amazons, but he could charm them with just a smile.

As he took one last sip of his chocolate, he suddenly saw a black and red figure cross the wall of the cafeteria and hit the counter, falling behind it. Everyone began to scream as a stone monster crossed the hole in the wall and walked to the counter, looking for the figure he had just seen. Apollo was stunned, for he has never seen anything like that before, but was not afraid.

Before he could do anything about the monster, he saw someone jump on it's back and punch his head violently, managing nothing but to make him angrier. Apollo realised that the one who was fighting the monster was a woman, and even though that didn't surprise him, he was still impressed that she was so brave to jump over it as she did. She wore a black suit with a bat on her chest, which made him remember someone his mother spoke of when he was a child, a man who wore bat suit.

He was taken off his thoughts when the monster got a hold of her head and threw Batgirl across the place. Without thinking much, Apollo jumped and held her before she could hit the wall, and because of his super strength, he wasn't thrown back when her body hit his chest.

Melissa had closed her eyes, already bracing herself for the impact of her back against the wall, but when she felt someone holding her, she quickly opened them, seeing herself face-to-face with an unknown extremely handsome guy. She pushed him away in less than three seconds, rose and ran back toward the monster, who only slapped her to the side when seeing her approaching. The brunette was thrown through the window and fell outside with a gasp of pain that almost turned into a cry.

Apollo then ran towards the stone monster and began a melee fight with him, which was the demigod' specialty, but punching its hard skin was something the hero found somewhat useless. He noticed that the blonde girl from before helped the civilian to leave the place so that they didn't get hurt, and that Johnny had already managed to escape. Because of this second, he got distracted, the monster grabbed his neck and pushed him hard against the closest wall, causing a massive crack to form from the spot he hit the ceiling.

Kevin stood up when he felt less dizzy and with his head still hurting a little. He may have Kryptonian DNA, but he was also half human, so he didn't possess all of his father's powers. He could still feel pain if the blow was too strong, though he could stand it more than ordinary people usually could. The hero watched as Apollo fought the monster and saw the crack star to spread on the ceiling, causing some pieces of it to start to fall. His eyes fell on a girl standing beside the door, and it didn't take long for him to realise one of the pieces was going to fall over her head at any moment.

Superboy flew as quickly as he could toward her, held her by the waist and carefully pushed her against the wall beside the door, leaving his body over hers as the ceiling collapsed and several stone pieces began to fall over his back and the back of his head. He could feel the young woman's shaky breathing against his throat, no less than expected since he had used his super speed and she had barely had time to realise what had happened.

When she opened her eyes, Kevin could see they were greenish brown, something strange to notice at that moment considering that the ceiling of the place was falling over them. When he felt the debris stopped falling, the hero pulled away a little, still looking into the blonde's eyes.

"Are you alright?" he asked, worriedly.

"Yes, thank you." her voice was sweet and not even a little bit shaky after the event. A smile appeared on her face, revealing her teeth as white as a cloud.

That reassuring smile faded once she saw the stone monster throw Apollo on the ground aggressively and run toward them. Without much thought, the blonde pushed Kevin slightly to the side and cried. But her scream was not an ordinary one, the sound that came out of her mouth was sharp and shrill, so strong that it made the monster fall backward.

Kevin and Apollo used their hands to cover their ears, both feeling an absurd pain at that scream that could only be a result of a metahuman power. The two let out muffled cries of pain and only upon hearing this, she stopped, realising that the monster was already lying on the ground unconscious and there was no need to keep using her canary cry anymore.

"Oh my God, I'm sorry!" the blonde helped Apollo to stand up and then looked over at Kevin as he approached.

"Kate?" the three of them turned to Melissa, who was walking in. She had a small glass shard stuck in her abdomen, and she didn't intend to remove it just yet. "What the hell are you doing in Metropolis?"

"Do you know her?" Kevin asked, walking up to the brunette and taking a look at her wound, then pulling the glass shard carefully from her abdomen.

"Ahh!" Batgirl clenched her jaw so she would not show her pain. However, when the glass came out, she felt a huge relief. "This is Kate Lance Queen, daughter of the Black Canary and the Green Arrow. You should be in Star City or Gotham. You never come here."

"I came to meet some friends, didn't expect to find you fighting a meta-human. And I'm sorry for the canary cry, sometimes I forget it affects everyone around me and not only my targets." Kate turned to the two heroes.

"Wait a minute, are you all children of Justice League members?" Apollo asked.

"Yes, how did you figure?" Kevin turned to him.

"I recognized the "S" on your chest. You're the son of Superman, I bet. A by hers I can say she's one of Batman's daughters or his new sidekick." he replied, taking some dust off his shoulders.

"And you are Wonder Woman's son," Melissa said, pressing her wound with her hand. Even though it was small, it was bleeding more than it should, what should worry anyone who didn't get as many wounds as her.

"That's right. So now that we've been introduced, can you explain what was that about?" Apollo pointed to the stone monster, who moaned in pain with his hands on his aching ears. They were bleeding because the canary cry had been more concentrated on him and that was something excruciating.

"Not here, let's go to a more reserved place." Batgirl heard the police sirens already on the outside.

"I have an apartment at the 1938 Sullivan, a few blocks from here. Come on. You need to have this wound closed." Kevin helped Melissa to the outside where he held her in his arms and flew away. Apollo did the same with Kate and started to fly behind them.


	3. Grace & Scott

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the comments on the previous chapter!! I hope you enjoy this one as well :)

As soon as they arrived at the building where Kevin lived, Apollo left Kate on the ground. He hadn't managed to take his eyes off the black-haired girl in Superboy's arms yet. Her wound was not too severe, but he was worried to see that she was still bleeding.

They walked in and took the elevator to the sixth floor.

There were only two doors one on each side of the large corridor, indicating that there were only two apartments per floor. Melissa let go of Kevin, and he opened the door. Most of the walls inside were white, and some were blue, besides the entrance there was a hallway leading to a door, probably his bedroom and the living room was right ahead of them. In there, there could be seen an armchair with a blanket over and right next to a blue sofa With a small white coffee table in front of it.

"Please, make yourselves at home while I look for the first aid kit." Kevin used his super speed to go to the bathroom and left the three of them standing in the middle of his living room.

"We should take you to the hospital. It can be something serious." Kate examined Mel's wound, and the Wayne stepped away from her.

"No hospitals," she replied, removing the mask from her face, revealing a few drops of sweat running down her forehead. "If my father finds out that I'm injured, he will come here only to take me back to Gotham by force, and I'm not in the mood for dealing with him right now."

"Here you go." Superboy came back and handed her a small white briefcase.

"I have experience with wounds in battle. The Amazons taught me enough of medical techniques so I can help you with yours." Apollo said, not receiving an answer from her.

Batgirl quietly walked into Kevin's room and was followed by the dark-haired young man. He could see how she looked like her father, at least using as reference the stories told to him by his mother about the League heroes. Something that hadn't gone unnoticed by him was the fact that Melissa was just an ordinary human who was not afraid to risk her life to defend others, he was truly amazed by her attitude.

"Do you live here alone?" Kate asked, breaking the silence between Kevin and her that had filled the room.

"Yes. My parents moved to Smallville a while ago, but they agreed to let me stay here until I finish my studies." he gave her a shy smile. He was always sympathetic when meeting new people, but there was something about Kate that made him want to be even sweeter to her.

"I've always been a big Superman fan, I can't believe we took so long to meet each other since I've always known you existed." she sat down on the couch, and her smile faded slightly. "Oh, and I'm sorry for the cry back in the cafeteria. Sometimes I can't control it very well. I didn't mean to hurt you guys."

"Don't worry about it. You got that monster down, so it was for a good cause. By the way, that was very impressive."

"I prefer to use the canary cry only if it's an emergency because, as you could see, it can be too powerful. Fighting is my specialty."

"If you fight anything like your mother, I better be careful not to piss you off." Kev chuckled and sat beside her on the couch.

They continued to talk about their parents and a bit about themselves too, soon forgetting that they had just met and unaware that both of them were enjoying each other's companies a bit too much.

In the bedroom, Melissa had a painful look on her face as she pulled the uniform off her body. It was great to protect her, however terrible to be taken off. When she managed to get rid of the last piece of kevlar, she realized a black mesh still covered her body.

Apollo was in bed, holding the small white briefcase, waiting for her to finish stripping. As Melissa unzipped her mesh and pulled it down to her waist, leaving her black top to sample, he didn't feel embarrassed to see her that way, after all, he had grown up on an island full of women and didn't feel awkward around them even if they were half naked.

"Give me the needle driver."

"You're not going to stitch yourself up, are you? I can do that for you." those words made her look at him with some suspicious, for she didn't know if he could do that. "I already sewed several Amazons after battles, you can trust me."

He gave her a small, discreet but reassuring smile, then got up from the bed and motioned for her to lie down.

She didn't trust him at all, but was starting to feel dizzy from the amount of blood loss and would probably mess her wound up even more if she tried to do that herself. She walked over to the bed and lied down belly up near the edge, watching him sit next to her and start wiping her wound with a white handkerchief.

"I still don't know your name," he remarked, now picking up the needle driver and preparing it along with the future.

"Melissa." she didn't look when he started to close her wound a few seconds later but bit her lower lip, preventing a groan from coming out of her mouth when she felt that spot burn. "Your's Apollo, right?"

"How did you know?"

"We've met before when we were kids." she closed her eyes to try to forget the pain, panting a little.

Apollo remembered the time his mother had taken him to meet the League members in the Watchtower. He hadn't seen Kate or Kevin, but he retained a girl with dark hair and big scared eyes shyly hiding behind Batman.

"You were that girl?" he sounded genuinely surprised. She opened her eyes and stared down at him as if that simple look would give him the answer. "You look so determined and confident now, nothing like the girl I met that day, shy and frightened. She didn't look like you at all." a faint smile appeared on his lips, but she remained impartial.

"That wasn't a good day for me. My dad had just decided to send me to a boarding school."

"Why would he do such thing?" Apollo finished stitching her wound and bandaged her abdomen carefully.

He then saw her body tense slightly as she felt him touch her bare skin.

"Are you done yet?" she answered with another question, and he realized she wanted to avoid talking about the topic.

He made a mental note not to push her any further and closed the first aid kit.

"Yes. Remember to try not to move a lot of it will open up again."

She didn't even look in his direction and started to put her clothes back. He figured she was still sensitive about the boarding school question and just took some bloody pieces of cotton he had used to clean her wound and went to throw them away in the trash can in the kitchen.

The demigod walked into the living room, Kevin and Kate stopped chatting and stood up.

"Everything is fine, it was barely a serious wound," he stated when seeing that Kevin seemed worried about his friend.

"She's tough, don't know why you were worried at all." Kate smiled, also relieved that the Wayne was ok.

A few minutes later, Melissa left the bedroom, already wearing her uniform again except this time without the mask.

"How are you feeling?" Kevin asked.

She waved her hand as if dismissing his concern.

"I'm fine. Now we have to discuss something way more important. We need to find out how those people are creating this thing." Melissa took a small syringe from her belt containing the serum that had caused all of the previous trouble. "What do you know about this thing?"h

"I know nothing," Apollo said quickly. "But if this thing created that monster, I'll do my best to keep it from happening again."

"I agree with him. Many people could be injured today. Whatever this is, I want to help." Kate looked at Kevin, who smiled at her.

"That's great, we'd like all the help we can get," he turned to Batgirl.

Mel seemed a bit taken aback, since the last time she tried to work as a team with anyone else, it went wrong. Sometimes she would have a partner like her father or Kevin, but a group was something entirely different and far more complicated to deal with. Nonetheless, she knew they would be handy in that mission, so she sighed and nodded slightly, then said:

"We can start by going to the S.T.A.R. Labs. They'll know what this serum is made and how we can stop it."

**§**

A strand of blond hair fell in front of her eyes as she stared out the window, which made the young girl comb it back behind her ear as fast as she could, the sudden movement of her hair startling her for a moment. Her curious blue eyes were fixed on the glass next to her place, completely ignoring what the teacher was saying to the class.

"Miss Allen? Grace Allen!" the teacher shouted and the blonde girl quickly turned to her, also seeing that all of her classmates were looking in her direction a bit confused. "Were you listening to the explanation?"

"Oh yeah, of course! I just-I got a little distracted for a second," she gave her a fake assuring smile, but if the teacher noticed, she didn't care, and she merely continued the lesson.

Grace waited until everyone stopped looking at her and sighed in relief. She couldn't focus on the lessons because of her attention deficit disorder, always being distracted by the weirdest things, and when she got too focused on something, she had hyperactivity crises. This would be something reasonable for an ordinary person with ADHD, but she wasn't a regular person.

Without realizing it, her forefinger began to tap the table very fast, and she felt her heart beat at an absurd speed.

"Oh, no..." Grace knew what was coming next and struggled to make it stop, but it was late.

The time around her was entirely in slow motion, everything moved agonizingly slowly, and she could do nothing but watch. It was suffocating.

The blonde's breath was out of control as the urge to run increased, her pupils dilated, and her hands tightened on her desk until everything stopped when she heard her phone ringing. Everyone moved again at average speed, but Grace still felt as if locked inside a room with her legs tied and unable to run.

"Miss Allen, is everything okay?" The teacher stopped the class once again to look at her.

Grace just picked up her backpack and her phone and left the classroom. She walked quickly to the end of the hall and answered the call.

"Hello?" she immediately recognized her father's voice on the other end of the line.

"Hey, sweetie! I don't like calling you when you're at school, but..."

"Don't worry, dad. Spit it up! What's the matter? Are there any problems with the League? Do you need my help?"

"Hey, hey, take it easy!" Barry was startled by the speed she was talking, even though he could understand everything. "Did you have another outbreak of hyperactivity?"

"N-no, I just..." Grace took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "Why did you call me?"

"They need me at the Tower immediately, but I needed to take some sample of a substance I found the other day to S.T.A.R. Labs. Can you do this for me, partner?"

"Of course!" Grace practically shouted to the whole school, shutting down the phone before her father could say anything else and running as fast as she could to her house.

Whenever she had these outbreaks, she had to run, and that small mission had arrived just in time. Upon arriving home, she put on her uniform that was very similar to her father's and had a red mask that covered the superior part of her face. And also pinned her long blond hair in a ponytail so it wouldn't get in  
the way while she was running.

The speedster searched the whole house in just two seconds and then found a small package where she read: "Deliver to Dr. Sarah Charles." Without waiting any longer, Grace sprinted to S.T.A.R Labs in Metropolis, since the one in Central City was being rebuilt after a Zoom attack. She felt freer as she ran, so she decided to take a longer path to spend more energy and do not have another outbreak of hyperactivity in front of people.

**§**

Mera paced the corridors, listening to the sound of her footsteps echo through the castle walls. Her long green dress was crawling across the floor covered by a red carpet as she moved closer and closer to the great door made of gold. When she opened it, she found the throne room empty; something unusual considering Arthur should be there at that moment.

The queen walked to the middle of the room, looking at the two empty thrones in front of her and wondered where her husband had gone when they were going to have a meeting with the council in a few minutes.

The answer came as the door swung open and Aquaman came in, holding the arm of a young man and dragging him into the room. Both were wet, indicating that they had come from outside the dome that surrounded Atlantis.

"What happened?" Mera questioned.

"Your son has done yet another thing to embarrass our family," the king replied. He was angry and annoyed while his son was pretty much chilled out.

"Yeah, when he does something wrong, he's only my son." she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow at the young man's attitude. "Scott, why don't you tell me what happened."

He wasn't faking his humor, he was genuinely bored as hell now, and a bit annoyed that his father had cut short his fun. And now he was going to have to deal with his mother lecturing him as well.

"I was only making out with a mermaid, nothing too serious."

"That was Lord Dorma's wife. Do you even think before doing things?" Arthur asked, visibly furious with his son. "Last week you almost destroyed an island practicing with your powers and in the previous one tried to scare some bathers with sharks, but lost control of them and almost killed five people!"

"Why do you keep nagging me with whatever I do?" Just because I'm not like you, so mighty and purblind?" Scott mocked, frustrated.

"Because soon you will become king, and still you act like a spoiled teenager!" the king shouted back, then tried to calm down when Mera glanced at him as if telling he was overreacting. "You'll stay confined inside the palace until you learn to be responsible and less childish."

"Firstly, did you see what I was doing with that mermaid back there? I'm not childish at all, old man." Scott smirked, and his mother uncrossed her arms, stepping dangerously close to him. So close he thought he was going to get his ass kicked for talking back like that.

Fortunately, it was just a warning for him to show some respect and he kept talking.

"Secondly, you can't make me stay in here. I've passed the age of being grounded."

"I am the King, Scott, and I don't care if you are my son. If you don't obey my orders, I will have you arrested," Aquaman turned his back on him before he could reply and left the throne room.

Scott has always been the son Aquaman wanted, but never the son he wished that someday would rule Atlantis. He was inconsequential and immature most of the time, not the best attributes of a king. However, he has always had a heart of gold and didn't mind risking his own life to defend others. Perhaps that was why his father still hoped that one day his son would mature.

Unfortunately for Arthur, that day wasn't even close yet.

As soon as his father left, Scott walked toward a nearby window, ready to flee out of it. His mother placed a hand on his shoulder and stopped him before he could do that.

"If you stay in Atlantis, your father will find out, and things are going to get out of hand. You'd better obey him just this once and stay at the palace." her voice was calm, yet overflowing with worry.

"I'm not staying in Atlantis any longer. I'd rather be anywhere but here with him," he said, hugging his mother. "Guess it was about time for me to get to know the dryland up there."

"I can't argue with that. After all, you're already old enough to decide that for yourself." Mera kissed her son's forehead. "Be careful. I will talk to your father when he's less stressed out."

Scott smiled at her and then jumped out the window to another, and kept doing so until he was closer to the ground. Some guards looked at him a bit surprised, but the prince had done that kind of thing since he was a kid, so nobody was startled anymore.

Scott used the secret passage he always used to leave the kingdom and went to the nearest mainland. As he emerged from the water, he received glances from all the bathers on the beach. It was the first time the prince was on land, and he found the weather warmer than he imagined.

After walking on the sand for a few minutes, attracting the attention of many civilians with his gold and green armor, he saw a large white building with black windows right next to the sea. The plaque above it read: S.T.A.R Labs. For a moment he thought he had seen a red figure flash past and enter the place, but as curious as he was, a few girls on the other side of the beach had caught his eye. He decided he could investigate this later, not realizing a big black car would stop in front of the lab and four people who came out of it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now the introductions are over and the true story will start in chapter four!!


	4. S.T.A.R Labs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, guys!! Oh, and I also wanted to clarify something about Barry Allen's daughter, Grace: She is blond with blue eyes because I'm using the comic's version of the Flash, not the series. I'm just saying this because a reader got confused in the last chapter, so I thought some of you might have been as well. Sorry for not explaining before. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy this new chapter :D

The S.T.A.R Labs of Metropolis was the largest of all, and had as its specialty the study of marine biology, although it also worked with other areas as well. Its location was near the central beach, where many civilians loved to go on a Sunday morning. Some of these people started to look curiously at the large black car parked in front of the laboratory, from which four figures came out in strange clothes.

Melissa felt uncomfortable with the strong sunbeams on her face, as she was used to going out as Batgirl only at night and usually spent the rest of her day inside the Batcave. The others seemed to enjoy the pleasant heat warming their faces, not having found time to relax or sleep since the last night. They kept trying to decide which Lab was the most trustable one at the moment and choose for that one.

Kate was now wearing a uniform similar to her mother's, but with some yellow details on her wrists and chest. Her father had given it to her when she turned twenty, and when dressed like that, she answered by the name of Canary. Apollo wore his armor made by the Amazons, and his unique silver bracelets were in both of his arms as a sword lay trapped in his belt. Kevin and Melissa also wore their uniforms, and when they realized they were drawing too much attention, they decided to go inside the lab.

The place was stunningly modern on the inside. Hundreds of scientists were pacing back and forth, bringing in new experiences all the time. The walls were dark metal, but the lights on the ceiling made everything very bright. Apollo watched the alien technologies around him, things that the hero had never seen in Themyscira, and that added to the sounds of the machines, left him a bit confused and slightly annoyed at the same time.

"Don't touch that!" they heard someone yell and then there was a small explosion not far, raising a significant amount of blue smoke and coloring at least three desks near it.

The four heroes ran to see what had happened and could only see a blond-haired young girl in a Flash-like uniform holding the bottle of an odd looking liquid. When the blue smoke started to vanish, they also saw a young man beside her. His face was dirty, but it only took him to run his hand over it, and he was clean once again.

He cast a look at the blonde, and it showed how annoyed and angry he was for what had just happened.

"My bad." she kept a smirk from appearing on her lips.

"Yeah, really bad! I told you not to touch anything" the guy shouted, turning to the heroes who were staring at them. His anger was replaced immediately by surprise. "Who are you guys?"

"Batgirl, Superboy, Canary, and Apollo. We need help identifying the components of a sample," Melissa said, straight to the point as always.

"Wait, are you the Justice League's kids?! How cool!" The young blonde girl let out a cry of joy, sprinting and standing next to Kevin in a second. "I'm Speedy, Flash's daughter! Damn, I've never met anyone else that was son or daughter of someone in the League! You're Superman's son, aren't you? How strong are you? If I put kryptonite in front of you, will you die?"

As Grace asked all those questions super quickly, Kevin just smiled and tried to find a loophole to answer, but was interrupted by the guy that had been talking to the speedster previously.

"Not, since he's half-human, kryptonite doesn't have the same effect on him as it does on Superman. He'd have to be exposed for a while to be affected by it." the heroes were slightly impressed and curious to know where that information came. "My name is Alex, by the way." he ran his hand through his hair, taking some traces of the blue paint off it and letting them see his face better.

He had short, blonde hair, his eyes were light brown, and he had a short beard under his chin. He was probably the same age as Kev, if not a bit older, and was wearing a once white lab coat that now was blue.

"How do you know about the effects of the kryptonite on me?" Superboy was already a bit uncomfortable with what the guy might answer.

He never got the chance, though.

"Our father knows everything about Superman and his family." a young woman walked up to stand beside Alex.

She had long blond wavy hair that came down to her waist, her face looked molded and perfectly sculpted, without blemishes or imperfections. The thing that caught everyone's attention the most though was her sparkling blue eyes.

"He's obsessed with Superman, you know. We are not proud to be his kids, but you don't choose family." she smiled at her brother and then at the heroes. "I'm Amanda Luthor, and this is my twin brother, Alexander Luthor Jr. He hates saying his whole name."

"Thanks, sister." he rolled his eyes and walked away from her.

Kevin was taken aback to hear that, even though he didn't usually judge people as soon as he knew them, Lex Luthor had already caused a lot of trouble for his father and many people. He couldn't think of anything good when hearing that last name.

Noticing the suspicious expressions of Superboy and Batgirl, Amanda quickly kept talking. "Don't worry; we have nothing to do with our father's business. We're doing an internship here at Star Labs to help you heroes since we don't have the power to help in other ways and make up for what our father did." her words were honest, as well as her smile.

Melissa thought it was strange Alex knew the specific details about the effects of kryptonite on Kevin, but there were more important issues to deal with at that moment. She wanted to unravel that mystery as soon as possible to get back to investigating her other cases in Gotham.

"We need to know how this serum is made" Batgirl took the syringe from her belt, catching Alex's attention.

He took a few steps closer to her.

"It looks like the sample you brought, Speedy. I'll give it to Dr. Charles when she returns." he reached out and waited for her to hand him the syringe, but Mel didn't move a muscle.

"I want the results right now. You can do this without the help of Dr. Charles. If you're here it's because you're smarter than most people, so you can tell me what I want." the last part sounded like a compliment, and Alex gave her a corner smile.

"Well, I'll see what I can do. Amanda, keep checking on our experiment and let me know when the heat levels are high again," he told his sister, holding his gaze on Batgirl while doing so and then motioning for her to follow him.

Amanda nodded and left, heading to a room away from where they were. Kevin and Apollo seemed to read each other's mind as they watched Melissa walk away with Alex. They both were not happy to know that the guy was Lex Luthor's son, but they didn't want to jump to conclusions either.

"And what should we do?" Canary asked.

"Don't break or touch anything," Batgirl replied, walking behind Alex.

"Hey, Superboy! Want to go for a race?" Grace's tone was playful, Kevin couldn't help but chuckle and think it would be a bad idea to do that in the middle of a laboratory.

"Sure, but I think we'd better do it outside," he could never refuse her request looking at those big blue eyes full of hope. He also was curious to know how fast that girl was.

Speedy smiled and ran outside, followed by an amused Superboy.

Canary and Apollo saw another way but to help the Luthor and Melissa find out what the was used to make the serum. They walked both through the various scientists until they reached a room that resembled an office at the end of the building. Batgirl and Alex were already in front of a big computer while analyzing some names written on the screen.

He had placed the sample inside a machine that was reading each molecule inside of it, and the results were appearing in the monitor pretty fast.

"It's so weird. This serum can locate the human cells and replace them with a metahuman one." Alex said.

"It is cloning artificially induced for what I can see. They clone the powers originated from a mother cell, that means that to make the serum it is necessary to extract the meta-human cells from a being with those specific powers so that it replaces the cells of somebody without powers." she finished, taking Alex out of his thoughts.

"You know a lot about this subject. Why did you have to come here to find this out?"

"This lab is one of the most modern in the world, only you can define when there are vestiges of metahuman cells with absolute certainty." she tried to ignore the look of interest he was giving her.

"I'd love to share my meta-human knowledge with you someday. Maybe at a dinner. What do you think?" he gave her a charming smile.

Melissa's eyes widened slightly as she was caught by surprise.

Kate chuckled at the realization that the brunette had grown nervous, while Apollo raised a questioning eyebrow. That guy barely knew her and was already inviting her to dinner? If that was the way things worked in that country, he was probably going to avoid dating for a while.

Batgirl stared at Alex speechless for a few seconds that felt like minutes to her. She didn't usually go out on dates as ordinary people did. She rarely even made friends, but was considering accepting the request for the sole purpose of learning more about that serum; Maybe she could also find out if Alex and his sister were trustworthy and if they could help them in any way in the future. Just as the young woman was about to answer, a deafening alarm sounded, causing Alex to jump off his chair and run into the next room.

Kate watched Batgirl approach them and didn't suppress the smirk that appeared on her lips.

"Saved by the bell, literally." the blonde watched the heroine roll her eyes, annoyed by the comment.

The three of them could only watch without knowing what was happening as several scientists started to run from side to side, some of them desperate, others just panicked. A red light blinked ceaselessly above them. Two figures passed through the crowd and stood beside them. Soon revealing themselves to be Speedy and Superboy, both used their super speed to get there in a slip of a second.

"I heard the alarm, what's happening?" the dark-haired hero asked, a bit bothered by the loud noise.

"One of the sources of energy exploded!" Amanda shouted, approaching them from behind. "We need to evacuate the building before-"

At that moment, something exploded, causing an entire wall to collapse. Kevin used his speed to save two scientists who would have been crushed by the stones, while Grace did the same with others who were on the opposite side.

"Get as many people as you can out of here, we will take care of the rest!" Batgirl shouted, running toward a metal ladder that took her to the second floor, where some scientists were afraid to come down after the blast.

Apollo and Kate also went to help, keeping the civilians away from the dangerous and flammable projects, taking care in the case of another explosion. The demigod kicked a desk that went flying in their direction when there was another blast, and it was broken mid-air in a million pieces.

"Nice kick, wonder boy." Canary smiled and then pulled two people out of the way of an explosion near a window.

Kevin started scouring the deepest rooms of the building to make sure that no one was trapped. He found no one there except for someone that had entered some storage room for experiments. He came over and saw a person with shiny skin, something that looked like platinum. Her whole body was covered with the material, going from her feet up to her long legs to her head and even her hair. Her physiognomy indicated she was a woman, and when he realized that it was like a second skin, the hero tried to use his x-ray vision to see the woman's face under it. As soon as he decided to do so, her skin changed, becoming a darker and denser metal.

The woman had managed to turn her skin from platinum to lead. She seemed to know that he would use his powers at that moment, then kicked him in the stomach when he came close enough. Her strength astounded him, as it caused him to be thrown away across a wall. Even with the dense layer of dust that rose after his fall, he could see the woman breaking another wall and leaving the laboratory.

On the other side of the lab, Batgirl helped the scientists out to the first floor when she heard a familiar noise.

Beep... Beep... Beep...

When she realized what would happen, she wrapped her cloak around the three scientists who were still close to her and heard the bomb explode. The material around them managed to protect the four, but the force of the blast pushed them away, though unharmed.

Apollo thrust his sword into the wall, and it pierced the concrete effortlessly. He then began to contour a door to kick it in and make an easy way out for everyone to leave faster. Grace saw parts of the laboratory catching fire, then used her arms to make small hurricanes that took the oxygen out of the flames, erasing them instantly. Kate was at the door when she realized that sizeable heavy equipment would fall on the speedster, who had her back to it. Canary ran toward Speedy and pushed her right at the moment the metal thing collapsed.

"Thanks, I would have turned into a pancake!" Speedy smiled, and Canary patted her shoulder.

"Just be careful next time, okay?"

"Apollo!" the two heard Batgirl shout from above. The demigod also looked up at her. "It wasn't an accident, there are bombs in here, and I see another one right behind you."

He turned to a giant machine a few feet away from him, and he could see a red dot on top of it.

"I can take care of that!" he said, putting his sword back on his belt and running toward the device.

"No! Just stay away!" Kate shouted, but he didn't listen.

By the time he was about to start flying, the bomb had exploded and threw him away, making him cross the wall and fall outside the building. Batgirl facepalmed and sighed, seeing what had happened to the demigod and that now more than half of the lab was on fire. At least the civilians were all outside, away from the danger.

When she jumped to the first floor to be able to leave with the others, a giant wave passed over them, reaching the parts of the laboratory that caught fire and leaving the heroes drenched. The water also hit a lot of computers, and they were lucky none of them got electrocuted in the process.

"I think this is yours." the heroines turned in the direction of the voice. It belonged to a young man a bit taller than Kate and Melissa with wet, dirty blond hair and white skin lighted by drops of water.

As the three of them looked down, they understood what the guy meant by that. In one hand he held a fainted Apollo by the back of his neck.

"Who are you?" Grace asked with her curious blue eyes on the stranger, watching him smile and approach them slowly.

"Scott Curry, Prince of Atlantis and son of Arthur Curry." saying that he let go of Apollo, who feel with his face to the floor and started to regain consciousness.

"Thanks for bringing our friend back, for a second I thought that explosion had got him." Canary shook hands with Scott, who was checking her out.

"No problem, Miss. And who are you, if you don't mind me asking?"

Speedy was about to introduce themselves when Mel interrupted her with her shouting.

"Superboy!" Batgirl looked around, mildly worried she couldn't find him anywhere, then staying a bit calmer when seeing him approach them. "Where were you?

"A woman attacked me. Her skin could become different types of metal for what I could see. I've never seen power like that before." the hero looked at Apollo, who was standing up confused and then at Scott. "What did I miss?"

"The bombs were implanted. Whoever did that, didn't want us to know more about the serum," Kate clutched her hair with her hands to draw the excess water from it.

"Or this person hated smart people and wanted them to explode. I've seen it happen before, not impossible." Grace commented. "But anyway, what is this serum that you are talking about? I think my dad found a sample the other day, at least it's what Luthor told me. Can I help you with whatever this is? I don't want to go back to school. It's so boring."

"No you can't, this is a private matter." Batgirl cut her off, then turned and walked towards the massive hole in the wall

"Is she always so grumpy?" Scott let out a small laugh.

"Almost always, but she can be cool once in awhile." Superboy shrugged.

"Ohh, I want to help!" Grace frowned and folded her arms.

"Don't listen to Batgirl, the more the help, the better," Canary said, smiling at the younger blonde. "Let's get out of here. I want to make sure we managed to take everyone out in time."

The four of them nodded and followed her outside, then saw Melissa standing in front of what had left of the building. Around the place, there were hundreds of reporters, police officers, and some firefighters. When they saw the heroes standing there, the scientists clapped their hands to the six of them.

"You have saved more than two hundred lives! How do you feel about that?" a reporter asked, surprising them when they learned they had saved so many people.

"Are you a superhero team? If so, what's the name of the team?" another reporter placed a microphone in front of them while a cameraman filmed everything.

"We're not a team!" Batgirl replied, annoyed. She hated any media and wanted to make the reporter swallow that microphone.

"Even if you aren't, you saved us all." they watched Alex walking through the crowd and approach them. "We are very grateful for that." he smiled, placing a hand on Batgirl's shoulder and pulling her into a corner to speak in private while her friends dealt with the reporters. "I'm sorry, but the samples were destroyed during the explosions. I still want to help you guys, though. This serum seems to be dangerous if in the wrong hands."

"Your help is welcome. You can start by figuring out who implanted the bombs in the lab," she looked at Superboy, who had a quizzical expression on his face as if wondering why he had pulled her into a private conversation.

She knew he could listen to everything they were saying, so decided to end the talk before her friend grew even more worried.

"How do I contact you?"

"I'll send you a message with my private phone number, use it in case of emergency only. " with that, she pulled away and began to pass through the crowd of reporters and police without difficulty, pushing those in her way without caring.

"Batgirl, we can solve this problem together! We saved so many lives today, and we work well as a team," Kevin said, approaching her.

"We are all kids of the Justice League members. Our parents would certainly be proud of us for following in their footsteps. We can solve this case faster with our combined forces, don't you think?" Kate added.

Melissa stared at them for a few seconds in silence. She hated to admit they were right, but she was even more interested in this case and would do anything to find out more about it, even if she had to work with other heroes for it.

"All right." she then got into her car. "Meet me in Gotham City in two hours. I'll text you the location."

Saying this, she closed the door and started off at full speed. She knew just the place where they could begin to decipher this great enigma.


	5. Unexpected visitors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys!! I hope you are enjoying the story so far, I wanted to thank you for your comments and welcome the new readers :D
> 
> As you may know, this story was posted in Portuguese 3 years ago and finished a year ago, so I’m sorry for my delay in uploading the chapters. There are 37 of them and I’m going to try to post them faster from now on, I promise.

Kevin and Apollo came out of the bathroom carrying two bags where they had put on their uniforms, both now wearing civilian clothes to camouflage themselves in the crowd. Melissa had provided them clothes when they met her in Gotham that afternoon, and now they were at a shopping mall for some reason that she had yet to explain to them.

The two heroes walked to where they spotted the others sitting at the table. Melissa was on her phone typing some message, Grace was eating a big hamburger from McDonald's, Scott had a bored look on his face, and Kate was also on the phone, but talking with someone.

"What are we doing here again?" Kevin asked, looking at his Wayne friend.

"I asked Cyborg to make some improvements in the secret base I was building. He'll call us when it's ready" she said, not taking her eyes off the phone.

"Alright, Mom, I'll call you if I need any help." with that, Kate hung up the phone. "So, Melissa, will you accept Alex's invitation to go out with him?" she and Grace then smirked looking at her.

Kevin raised an eyebrow and looked at her as well, who finally looked up from her phone to the others.

"I'm not doing this to get a boyfriend," she said nonchalantly. "But if by any chance I am, it's because I think he can help us and I want to discuss this serum with him."

"Mel, I know you know people better than I do, but we still don't know if we can trust those two," Kevin warned.

"I wasn't excited about working with them either. After all, they are Luthor's kids." Apollo said.

"I liked them!" Grace took a long sip of her soda. "Alex yelled at me because I messed up his experiment, but he was very nice helping even without knowing us. If she wants to date him, I approve!"

"I believe we're not here to discuss Melissa's love life. I thought we were going to try to find out more about the serum and the bad guys." Scott reached for two of Grace's french fries and ate them.

"I'm taking care of it." Melissa turned her cell phone in their direction. "Alex just sent me a list of places where metahuman apparitions happened, some very sudden. We can start by looking into those places and trying to find something that will lead us to the people responsible for it or-"

Before she could continue, they all heard a voice that only Kevin and Melissa recognized.

"Kevin Kent!" Catherine's voice echoed through the entire floor.

Melissa gave a small grunt of rage and laid her face on the table. Kev quietly sighed and wondered how his girlfriend had managed to find him there. Probably through his mother, whom he had called after what happened in Metropolis, and they accidentally appeared on TV as "the new city heroes."

"Kate, please, hit my head with something and knock me out. This girl is annoying as hell." Mel lifted her face slightly to look at her friend.

Everyone watched as the redhead approached them with heavy steps and a visibly irritated expression. Kevin knew his girlfriend was about to explode and he didn't want her to do it in front of his friends, so the young man stood up and stopped her walking, placing his hands on her shoulders gently.

"Cat, what are you doing here?"

"How could you disappear? I tried to call you for hours, and in the end, I had to call your parents, who told me you were in Gotham. What are you doing here?" Catherine said at the top of her lungs, destroying whatever privacy Kevin wished they had.

"Sorry for not telling you I would come here, but I had important matters to solve."

"With that girl!" she pointed an accusing finger at Melissa, who remained serious and silent. "Yeah, I know these important matters very well. Now I want you to go back to Metropolis and then we are going to the movies together."

"Kevin, why are you still dating this girl?" Melissa asked, making Grace let out an incredulous chuckle.

None of the heroes there liked the tone Catherine was using with Kevin and were asking the same question inside their minds.

"Our relationship isn't your concern, bitch!" the redhead shouted. Kevin sighed, wishing she hadn't said that.

"I'm just not going to teach you good manners out of respect for Kevin. Of course, if he allows it, I'll kick your unwelcome ass in a second" the Wayne replied.

As Catherine argued with Melissa and the others tried to calm them down, Kevin shifted his attention for a second listening to the roar of screaming people in the parking lot. When he looked to the side and used his x-ray vision, he saw that someone launched a car toward that wall.

The hero pushed his girlfriend out on the way and walked closer to the wall, which in seconds collapsed as the car passed through it. Kevin held the vehicle with ease, but when he was about to place it on the ground, he received a punch in the face. The blow was so sharp that he was thrown across the mall and fell inside a store.

Melissa turned and saw a tall woman whose skin was covered by a thick layer of lead-like metal. She walked toward the heroes, but Grace quickly ran toward her and pushed her away, sending the metal-woman a few steps back.

Apollo opened his bag and took his sword out of it, then walked towards the mysterious woman that had attacked Kev. At that point, all the civilians had already left, afraid of what may happen if they stayed there, but some sellers were still in the shops hiding behind the counter. They would have to try to cause as little destruction as possible, Apollo thought, since he knew there was going to be a fight.

When the hero came close enough, he struck a side blow in her direction, but the metal-woman took the sword blade without suffering any injury and punched Apollo's belly. He got breathless for a second, lowering his guard and receiving a sharp punch in the face this time. He recovered fast enough and held her arms, using his strength to push her to the ground. She, however, rolled with the movement and ended up standing up away from him. Before he knew it, she was kicking his chin with all she had and causing him to fall on his back.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Melissa surrounded the enemy, and so did Kate, Grace, and Scott, keeping some distance from the woman.

"My name is Titania," she said, her voice sounds a bit robotic, but it was obvious that she was a human being on the inside of that metal shell. "And I want the son of the Kryptonian."

"You're not going to get him, Miss, because we won't let you. But if you want to take his annoying girlfriend, then be our guest" Grace commented, running toward Titania.

The others could barely see her while moving, only a yellow blur passing here and there. She punched the woman's face, her chest and then her back. While trying to hit the speedster uselessly, Titania decided to stop and was able to see a figure passing by her right side, realizing that Grace was running in circles around her. She then punched the air to the left, consequently hitting the blonde, who was thrown into a candy shop and crossed the glass with force.

Kate jumped on Titania's back from behind, wrapping her arm around her neck and pulling her back. The metal-woman was not feeling suffocated by the grip on her throat as ordinary people with normal skins would, so that wasn't effective at all. She took holding of the Queen's long blond hair and threw her off her back. When her back hit the ground, Kate had to roll to the side so the woman wouldn't step on her head and smash it like a tomato.

Scott raised his hand, and a water fountain exploded, causing the water to start running all over the place. He sent a great deal of it in her direction and hit her in full with a gust that she took while standing tall and not moving a bit. The Atlantean then walked up to her, and they started a fight, him being slightly better than her for having had basic training of hand to hand combat, but she was strong enough not to let him win so easily.

Melissa watched the way Titania was fighting. It was unprofessional. She seemed to use force for not knowing any martial art. That indicated that she was not an ordinary criminal, perhaps one of the people who had injected the serum to become a metahuman or just a crazy bitch that was looking for trouble.

Scott managed to avoid most of her blows and then punched her in the face when saw an opening. Melissa then entered the fight and kicked the side of the woman's body, drawing her attention to her. Looking extremely angry, Titania wrapped her hand around Scott's neck and lifted him up, throwing him on top of Melissa and watching as they fell to the ground.

Kevin recovered from the dizziness that had hit him after he had been punched, then stood up and walked toward the crazy metal-woman.

When she saw him approaching, she ignored the other heroes and walked up to him slowly. He didn't know what to expect from her, but his priority was to take her away from his friends and the civilians inside the mall.

When she was a few feet from him, she ran in his direction and tried to punch him in the face. Kevin defended the blow, but received another in the chest, feeling something pointy but small pierce his arm when he was focusing not to gain another blow. It was uncomfortable, but he didn't have time to see what it was. Superboy then managed to hold the woman's fist as she tried to strike him a sixth time and threw her toward a wall not so gently. Titania seemed to suffer no damage from the impact, her skin protected by the metal, and that made Kevin realize he would have to be more aggressive if he wanted to defeat her.

The hero pushed her hard across the wall of a shop. At that moment, he felt stronger, and something was bothering him, but he had no idea what was it. The only thing he knew, was that it made him feel frustrated. He wanted to end that fight now, he wished he could get rid of that woman and go home, and she was making it a lot more difficult. That made him angry.

Titania used both feet to push him away, then punched the wall by her side, opening a massive hole in it. After doing this, she ran outside, leaving Kevin alone in the middle of the partially destroyed shop. He took a deep breath and finally looked at his arm, seeing a small red rock stuck in it. He didn't know how that rock could penetrate his skin. He had never seen something that wasn't kryptonite do so. The hero removed it, scanning the bright object for a few seconds before closing his hand around it and leaving the store to find his friends.

On the outside, Melissa watched as the cops entered the mall to see if there was anyone else inside that needed help. Kate was standing next to Scott talking to a police officer when Grace appeared suddenly holding several bags of candy.

"Where did you get that?" Kate asked.

"Luckily I was thrown into a candy store, the saleswoman was in there, so I bought some." the blonde smiled as she happily ate licorice.

"Of course, all you need now is more sugar." Scott teased and smiled at her.

Apollo approached Melissa, who seemed lost in thought. His jaw was right for someone who had taken a blow like that one, and the pain was slowly fading. He checked on her for a moment to see if she was injured, soon realizing she was okay and feeling immediate relief.

"She was strong, but she did not know how to fight well," he remarked, the same one she had thought of earlier.

"I figured it out. Someone sent her after Kev, maybe the same people who planted explosives in the STAR Labs." she sighed, a bit tired of that stressful day. "Why does Kent always disappear in the middle of the fights?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, he appeared by her side.

"I'm here, and I'm ok, thanks for the worry. That woman ran away, but left this-" before he could mention the red rock, Catherine walked past the police barrier toward him.

"What was that?! You and your little friends destroyed the mall! Are you guys freaks or something? If you want to be my boyfriend, you better stop being a weirdo and stay away from these idiots-!"

"Shut your mouth!" everyone was surprised to hear Kevin say that.

Melissa gave him a look of confusion and wondered if her friend had finally given up on being kind to that girl.

"What did you just said to me?" Cat sounded angry, but she also looked as surprised as the others.  
"Your voice annoys me!" he added. "You're so unbearable, snobbish, and selfish that I barely hear what you say to me because I can't stand the sound of your voice anymore. I don't even know how a human being could put up with you. I think I managed to do it for so long because I'm only half human! I'm sick of being your doormat and putting up with your pimples. You can go find some idiot to be your boyfriend because I've had enough."

"Gee! That was a good one, big guy." was all Grace could say after those words.

Kate's mouth was agape as well as Apollo's. Melissa smirked slightly and tried not to laugh, and Scott stared at the redhead to see her reaction, expecting something funny. Her white skin was red from the anger, and she kept opening and closing her mouth, not knowing what to say.

"You'll regret this, Kent! You and your freak friends are going to pay!" Catherine shouted before walking with heavy steps away from the six of them.

"Finally!" Mel said. "What happened for you to suddenly decided to stop being kind to extremely irritating people?"

Kevin had only realized what he had said after the words had left his mouth. He felt as if his anger had dissipated for a few seconds after exploding like that, and he felt terrific. Now, with the breakup, he was feeling a lot more free than before, and if he ever saw that girl ever again, it would be too soon.

"Are you feeling ok, Kevin?" Kate looked worriedly at the hero. It wasn't like him to talk to someone like that, even though Catherine deserved every word. He was better than that.

"I've never felt better." he gave her a reassuring, yet weak smile, placing the small red rock inside his pocket.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo... Red Kryptonite, what could go wrong?


	6. Red stone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, folks. Been busy with work :p

A few hours after the mall incident, Melissa received a call from Cyborg saying the base was finally ready. The five took a cab - Grace running to follow it - to an abandoned old theater in the center of the city and entered the place.

"I chose this theater because no one has been here for over ten years, but my family still owns it," Melissa said as she walked through the dusty armchairs. "You can't tell the location of my base to anyone. To get in, you will need a password that, although I'm not so happy doing so, I will give it to you."

Melissa stopped in front of a large picture and pushed it aside, revealing a large panel full of buttons from 1 to 100.

"21, 45, 12, 37, 93, 60, 22, 89, and 18." she pressed the buttons as she spoke and then turned to the others, seeing the confused stares they were giving her. "C'mon, it isn't so hard to remember."

"Not at all," Kate chuckled, trying to pretend that she still remembered all those numbers.

Melissa sighed, staring at the metal door that opened where it once stood the wall, revealing a big elevator.

"This elevator will take you to the base underground, where it can't be detected and is harder to invade," Melissa entered the elevator as well as the others except for Apollo, who stood still in the doorway.

He'd never visited that world before, it had taken him some time to get used to cars and other devices, but that was something new to him. What exactly was an elevator? He thought, really curious and nervous at the same time.

"Are you coming or not?" Mel gestured for him to come in, and he did so reluctantly.

When the metal box closed, Apollo couldn't help but hold a tight grip on the small metal bar stuck to the nearby wall, his stomach contracting as the elevator began to descend with some loud noises. He felt his breathing grow heavy and the need to get out of that confined space increased with every second.

Kevin also wanted to leave soon, but it wasn't because he felt smothered. His chest burned unpleasantly, and he wanted to punch something. That good feeling from before had vanished, replaced by more anger, and that made him want to destroy the first thing he saw in front of him.

When the doors opened, Apollo was the first to leave, his breathing heavy and his face as pale as a cloud.

"I didn't know you were claustrophobic." Kate placed a hand on his shoulder as she stepped out of the elevator, checking if he was alright.

"Neither did I." At last, he felt free to breathe again, but then he was speechless as he looked at Melissa's enormous hiding place, the very same reaction of the other heroes.

They were apparently under the earth, as hundreds of stalactites hung over them. It elevated them to a huge circular platform where there were several computers, one more modern than the other. In the center of the platform was the image of a bat, which caused Grace to close her face in a grimace.

"Why a bat? Why not a bolt of lightning or a cute puppy?" She asked, watching Melissa approach a small bridge lit by blue lights.

"My hiding place, my bat." The Wayne walked without looking back as if it were apparent the five should follow her.

She stopped on the other side of the small bridge, where there was another circular platform, in which there was a huge leather sofa that had the shape of a "U" and a large television trapped by a metal extension attached to the ceiling. The place was beautiful, and an air conditioner kept the room temperature cool, you could barely notice that they were underground.

"I didn't want any distractions here, but Cyborg insisted that we were just teenagers and we needed a distraction now and then."

"Remind me to thank Cyborg for that." Grace smiled along with Kate and Apollo.

Kevin remained silent, and his attention turned to things other than Melissa. Scott kept his eyes on something covered by a large blue cloth, and he soon approached it, smelling a pleasing odor on the other side.

"What's in here?" He asked, turning to Melissa.

"I know you can't stay away from the sea for too long, and Gotham doesn't have magnificent beaches to swim in. Most of them still polluted, and since I want to end this investigation as quickly as possible, I decided to ask Cyborg to make this," the Wayne pulled the cloth down, revealing a vast saltwater tank under it.

Scott smirked and examined the tank, which must have been ten feet high. It was a giant pool made of glass and filled with sea water.

"Scott will look like a goldfish!" Grace joked.

"Let's see who the goldfish will be when I throw you inside!" Scott laughed and ran towards Grace. The blonde girl became desperate and began to run quickly, but at an acceptable speed to him.

"I just straightened my hair, don't you dare!" She shouted, tracing most of the base while Scott tried, in vain, to catch her.

Kate and Apollo laughed as Melissa just walked toward the lit bridge again. Kevin felt his headache increase and all the noise that Grace and Scott were making didn't help much. He clenched his fists and took a deep breath, trying to dispel that sense of hatred, but failed.

"Enough!" His shout made the walls tremble, and everyone's attention turned to the young man. "I don't think we came here to play. That woman with metal skin is still out there, and we have no clue that leads us to the origin of the serum yet!"

"For starters, you let her get away, so I don't see the reason for all this stress." Melissa walked toward the Kent with her arms folded.

"I let her get away because I had to make sure you were all right because you got a beating from her!" The mood between them began to tense as Kevin's anger only increased.

"Remember that you're not like Superman, you have limitations like any of us, so don't think we're helpless little children needing your protection," the Wayne replied, also starting to get angry because of the way he answered her.

"Guys, let's all calm down." Kate could tell the discussion was starting to heat up and she decided to try to stop it now, but she was cut short.

"My limitations are not like yours, but of course you would not admit it, you're just like your father!"

Melissa was silent, feeling her chest burn with so much anger that she thought it was catching fire. If there was one thing she hated was to be compared to her father, even if it was just a casual discussion, she couldn't stand the idea of being like him. Kevin knew this and had only heard his words when they left his mouth. He could feel the look of hate and disappointment she kept on him, forcing him to look away from her.

He ran his hand over his face, trying to calm himself.

"Call me when you resolve to do something useful." Kevin walked pass Melissa toward the elevator. Everyone was silent and static, trying to find out what was going on in the hero's mind at that moment.

Kate waited a little while and then followed him because she knew something was wrong with her newest friend and she would find out just what it was. Kevin wasn't rude, on the contrary, he was always calm, patient and kind. Something must be wrong.

Apollo approached Melissa, who stood with her arms still folded as she had the urge to punch Kevin's face. He was not sure what to say, but he realized how annoyed she was to hear that comparison with her father as if it were something terrible.

"I do not think he meant it, Melissa. Kevin's been different since the mall incident..."

"Let's forget about it and get back to work. The sooner we finish, the best," she interrupted him, walking back to the computer area. Before she reached the other side of the platform, the Wayne heard her phone ring and, after seeing the name on the screen, answered quickly. "Found anything yet, Alex?"

"Well, yes, but not about the serum. After we scoured the lab, we discovered something stolen. You need to keep Kevin around!"

"Why? What the woman stole?" Melissa sounded worried, and the others noticed it, then approached to know what was going on.

"Red kryptonite." hearing that made the blood fade from Melissa's face. Kevin was clearly with the red kryptonite and would be a danger to everyone around him when that stone had a full effect on him. "We had a sample for analysis, and it disappeared. But he may not have been exposed to it yet..."

"He's already exposed, but thank you for letting me know. Talk to you later!" She hung up, sighing and running her hand over her forehead.

"What happened?" Scott asked, curiosity taking the best of him.

"Kate's in danger!" Melissa walked toward a wall and pressed a button on it, causing it to open and reveal her Batgirl uniform.

"What? No, she's with Kevin!" Grace ran over to the heroine, who looked at her with a severe expression.

"That's exactly why she's in danger."

  
**§**

  
Kevin knew Kate was following him. He felt as if his head was going to explode at any second and that was terrible. He stopped walking and closed his eyes, placing one hand on his face and taking a deep breath.

"Kevin, what's going on? I know you'd never speak to someone like that, even if I only met you a day ago, I know you're not like that." Kate rested her hand on his shoulder, but the hero turned away, looking at the blonde, and she saw a faint red glow in his eyes for a moment, before them turning blue once again.

"I want to be alone, Kate... Please." he seemed to know something was wrong, and he didn't want to hurt her physically or in words as he had done with Melissa.

"Kevin," she could not finish, for he walked into a diner and left her alone. Kate sighed, now sure that he was not quite alright, and then stepped inside the place following after the Kent and sitting at a table near the counter where he was.

As she sat down in front of him, the Queen caught that same reddish gleam from before in his eyes and became even more worried.

"I told you I wanted to be alone, Kate," he said between clenched teeth, his fists on the table.

"What is wrong with you?" She reached out to touch his hand, but Kevin stood up abruptly. At that moment, a man wearing a black mask entered the cafeteria and pointed a gun at the counter attendant's head.

"Everybody get the fuck down, or I'm going to shoot your faces! And give me all the money you have in this shitty place!" The burglar yelled and shot to the ceiling, causing everyone to scream in terror and lower themselves immediately, except for Kate and Kevin. "I told you to get down, playboy!" He pointed the gun at the hero.

Kevin was about to explode, and when the man aimed the gun at his face, he gave up trying to stay calm. He held the weapon and warped it, making the robber confused, surprised and terrified at the same time. He then pushed him hard against the wall, his eyes now blood-red.

"I'm tired of people like you!" He yelled angrily, ready to punch the man's face, but was stopped by Kate, who held his hand before he did so. Despite not having the strength to contain his, she managed to catch her friend's attention.

"Kevin, stop!" She shouted, trying not to show the fear she felt as she faced those red eyes.

"Stay away, Kate." He said, looking back at the assailant.

"No!" She pulled his shoulder this time. The blonde then felt intense pressure on her chest, only realizing that he had pushed her when she hit her back against the wall. Her breathing became heavy and slightly breathless, her eyes widening as she stared at him.

Kevin just turned to the man once again and lifted him by the neck, ready to break it at any moment, when a deafening noise was picked up by his super audition. Kate was using the canary cry to take his attention away from the man and tried to make him come back to his senses. That could not be the same Kevin Kent she met.

Kevin let out a cry of pain, dropping the assailant and falling to the ground with his hands covering his ears. It only made him angrier, and what remained of his kind personality had vanished at that moment. He got up, still with difficulty and flew quickly toward her, covering her mouth with his hand and pushing her hard against the other wall.

The blow made the blonde young woman turn dizzy, and she could feel his hands pressing hard against her lips. Before the hero could do anything, he was pushed aside by someone strong, releasing Kate and staggering to the side. Apollo grabbed the blonde's arms to help her stand again as Melissa, Scott, and Grace walked into the diner.

"Kevin, you need help," Batgirl said, approaching him.

Superboy could hardly hear her friend after the canary cry almost blowing his ears. His anger was now on a dangerously high level.

"Kevin!" Batgirl shouted when she got no answer, and that made him fly straight to her and grab her by the throat, throwing her on one of the tables and breaking it.

Grace was astonished as Apollo and Scott ran up to him and pushed him away from Batgirl. The two, however, were quickly overthrown by the hero. Apollo went to stand behind him, managing to keep him immobilized for a few seconds, but Kevin used his heat vision and lightly burned the demigod's hand, forcing him to release his grip and then punched him in the face, almost leaving Apollo unconscious.

Grace was not sure what to do, she was faster than Kevin, but he was stronger. She'd have to be smart. Melissa said something about a red rock that made him angry and possibly evil. She needed to find this rock and get rid of it.

"Hey, big guy!" The speedster shouted, going over the plan in her mind to see if it would work. "I doubt you can get me!"

Shortly after saying this, Grace began to run through the diner, leaving Kevin disoriented by the number of times he had passed by him. She waited until she had run enough to have a hyperactivity crisis and everything began to move in slow motion. When that happened, the blonde was, for the first time, relieved to have this problem.

She started searching for the red stone, and it was not long before she found it inside his pocket. Grace held it tightly, began to twist her arm quickly and tossed the red kryptonite away, watching it pass through the ceiling and disappear in the middle of the clouds in the sky.

"I just hope it doesn't fall on someone's head," Grace groaned, only thinking about that possibility now. She saw the others starting to move at average speed and realized it was already over.

Melissa stood up just like Apollo and Scott, and everyone looked at Kevin as he collapsed to his knees on the floor. He was panting, and his face was pale, his hands tremble, but he felt calmer than before. Kate was the first to approach her friend, kneeling in front of him and placing her hands on the sides of his face to look into his eyes. They had now returned to their standard color, and the hero seemed tense, yet without any hatred.

"W-What happened?" He asked, his voice trembling, and Kate almost thought he was going to cry.

"It wasn't your fault, Kevin." Batgirl approached. "Titania stole red kryptonite from Star Labs and must have put it on you while you were fighting."

"What? Oh my God, did I do something to you? I didn't mean to..."He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. You didn't hurt any of us that much." Kate tried to calm him down, giving him a kind smile as she looked deep into his eyes.

"Oh, of course, a punch or two does not make any difference, does it?" Apollo ran his hand over his jaw that ached after the punch.

"How did you get the stone out of him, Grace?" Scott asked, and the blonde received looks from everyone on the team.

"I'd rather not comment. It's a little problem I have, and I use it to my advantage. Maybe more useful more often in the future." She smiled, combing her long hair with her fingers.

"I hope so. Let's get out of here before the police arrive." Batgirl walked towards the door but stopped by the sound of Kevin's voice.

"Mel, if something like this happens again," he paused. "I don't want you to feel sorry, okay? I don't want to hurt any of you. You have to do whatever is necessary to stop me."

She already knew what he meant and swallowed dry just thinking about doing it with her best friend. Her eyes turned to him, and they remained there.

"I would never get to that point," she said as she turned her back and left.

  
**§**

  
"Your incompetence fascinates me, Titania," the woman said to the meta-human.

"It wasn't my fault. They shouldn't have figured it out before Superman's son killed them!" She replied, punching the wall with such anger that her right fist opened a hole in it.

"We'll need another distraction. I don't want them close to finding the source of the serum until it's all in Gotham." The woman ran her hand over her chin, thoughtfully. "I know what we can do, and it may keep them busy for a few days."

She turned to Titania.

"I want you to find Melody Curry, I know she's going to love doing this little service for us."

**Author's Note:**

> So I have this thing on tumblr where the readers can ask questions to the characters. Most of them were asked in portuguese by my other readers, but you guys can ask them in english whenever you want to :)
> 
> Tumblr: http://deepsixfanfic.tumblr.com/heroesenglishpage


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